On Nov. 4, we will cast our vote in the most important election of this generation — what will be the most important election of our lives. It comes at a critical time, as we bleakly watch our economy freefall, as so many of our neighbors — families — are losing their homes.

When we think of the roots of hip-hop, we think of the streets and the youth that made street culture a multimillion dollar industry. The transformation of this underground culture into mainstream industries has allowed people like Karlo Reyes and Rex Korrell to turn what was once a hobby into a living while still staying true to their roots as Filipino Americans.

Seattle has no shortage of people who are well known within the arts community. The International District in particular has a number of outstanding leaders in the Asian American community. But both these communities owe a debt of gratitude to Mayumi Tsutakawa.

Working within the emotionally associative forms of poetry and memoir, award-winning poet David Mura has already created a body of work that tackles head-on complex issues such as sexual desire and addiction, race relations and the unspoken consequences of U.S. WWII internment camps on later generations of Japanese Americans.